


Tiny!Tony

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: The Holmes Estate [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, F/M, Fluff, Howard Stark's Good Parenting, Team Stark, Team Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-08-05 04:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16360775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: Tony Stark is born and grows up in a reality where there's no S.H.I.E.L.D., no Winter Soldier, and HYDRA is under control. He grows up with a very large family behind him.





	1. The Beginning of Life

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

Jarvis had been the one to call the office. ‘Mrs. Stark has gone into labour.’

Once, he would have considered his employer’s insistence for a home-birth ridiculous. Over the years, however, he’d come to understand what the Holmes servants did: none of his family did anything without a reason. The unsettling realisation that HYDRA was not as “gone” as had once been believed was also a fair reason for the insistence.

Mr. Stark was home less than an hour later.

Jarvis stood just outside the room, watching as Mr. Stark sat on the bed next to his wife, allowing her to squeeze the living daylights out of his left hand as she squeezed a brand new person out of her body. His other hand was occupied with stroking her blonde hair, matted with sweat, back from her face.

Dr. Shields sat at the foot of the bed, waiting for the child to begin his or her entrance into the world. Both parents were absolutely certain that they were about to have a son. The entire ordeal was nerve-wracking and Jarvis was just standing on the periphery of the room. It seemed to stretch on forever.

Then there was a snapping sound and a baby’s wail pierced the air.

‘It’s a boy,’ Dr. Shields said.

Mr. Stark kissed his wife and then he got up. In a few moments, Dr. Shields handed him a small bundle wrapped in a soft blanket. The child quickly quietened and a tiny little hand fisted in the material of the blanket. That little hand constantly moved. Mr. Stark looked down at the child like he couldn’t believe that he was real; like he was terrified of something. And there was something else in his eyes too.

Dr. Shields chuckled at this expression for some reason. ‘So, what’s his name?’

That seemed to snap Mr. Stark out of it. He smiled. ‘Anthony Edward Stark.’

Dr. Shields nodded and grabbed a chart to write that down.

‘Howard,’ Mrs. Stark called.

Mr. Stark carried the child over to his wife and laid the newborn infant into her arms.

***

Anthony opened his eyes when he was five days old.

He’d been feeding when he’d just cracked open his eyelids to reveal the muddy brown colour that was common in Holmes infants. Later on, Maria had been told, that muddy colour would turn to a chocolaty one – like Howard’s eyes. Still, he fixed those eyes on his mother and just stared.

After that, every time he was awake, he would stare at things. If they came within his reach, he would then examine them. Noisy toys only got his interest until he understood how they worked. For example, he’d had a teddy with plastic baubles inside so it made noise when he was moved. Tony would lie on his back, shaking it. He’d turn it this way and that, and shake it again. Then he found the zipper in the teddy’s back.

Once he worked out how to open the zipper, he pulled out the plastic sphere with the baubles inside. He shook the teddy. Upon hearing no noise, he shook the sphere. His eyes had lit up, like Howard’s did when he had an “aha” moment. He then set about learning how the baubles made the noise. He experimented with it by knocking things together to see if they made noise.

Howard thought it was adorable.

Maria was mildly unnerved at the advanced way her son seemed to be thinking.

‘Yeah,’ Palmer’s wife, Sophie, had said when they talked about it, casting a glance at her daughter, Sable, ‘tell me about it.’

At the time, Sable had been sitting with Tony with a rubrik’s cube in her hand.

***

Ana had grieved the loss of her fertility deeply.

While she knew that wanting it back wouldn’t get it back, Mrs. Lacey had given her hope back in ’48 when she’d explained that the “open bed” policy of Stark men was a temporary affair. At first, she hadn’t realised that Maria Collins Carbonell was anything special to her employer. Over the years though, it’d become more and more clear.

The Stark marriage was not as surprising to her as it had been to her husband.

And then, along came this little boy. This child was nothing short of a miracle. Once he worked out how to sit up, crawling came quickly. Ana was of the personal opinion that he’d learned to crawl by watching his father. A few times, he’d been carried down to the workshop where Mr. Stark was working.

On several of those occasions, Mr. Stark had crawled under something to get a hold on something else. Each time he was with his father, Anthony would watch him very carefully. Scarcely a month after he learned to sit up, Anthony rolled over and began to crawl. Then he was getting into everything.

Almost immediately, Edwin and Mr. Stark put up child barriers in front of every stairway.

In no time at all, Anthony would be uttering his first word.

***

James Barnes had first been introduced to little Anthony Stark when he’d been granted leave to come in and sign the deed that listed him as Tony’s Godfather should anything happen to Howard, Maria, and the Holmeses. Not very likely but someone had tried it before. The plan was if something happened to Howard and Maria, Tony would be sent to England to live with his cousins. Failing that, he would become James’s responsibility.

He was a tiny little thing, with a head of dark brown hair and wide brown eyes that seemed to take in everything, both characteristic to his father’s family. In his hand, he held a plastic red and yellow screwdriver that he would bang against things (but not people so they must have already discouraged that) and wave about in the air. Except when he saw Howard using tools of any sort, James quickly learned. Then Tony would imitate what his father was doing. Scarcely eight months old and he was already gearing up to be an engineer.

Tony loved his mother, and he would often fall asleep to her music – whether her singing or her playing the grand piano in the living room – but every time he saw Howard he’d make a happy little noise and crawl over to him. Howard, a far better father than anyone could have guessed, would crouch down and hold his hands out for his son.

Bucky remembered when the child had been deposited into his arms for the first time. He’d never been more aware of his enhanced strength than in that moment. Because of the wide, innocent eyes of the child looking up at him from their place in a round and chubby face. Then a tiny and curious little hand reached out for James’s face. He was small, he’d barely begun developing in the grand scheme of things, and he didn’t yet have the strength in his legs to get them under him and walk.

It was quite startling to realise such a fragile creature was being held in hands that could rip the gun off of a tank.

Over time, though, James got used to it. Babies were tougher than they looked and he got over his nerves. He was one of the first people notified when Anthony finally uttered his first word. He could just about see the events described even as he read the letter from their undercover base. He could just about see Howard giving out an exuberant hoot and rushing over to scoop his son up into the air, to the little boy’s delight.

And he could just about hear Anthony say the word.

“Scewdiver.”


	2. Circuit Board

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At 4 years old, Tony Stark built his first circuit board.

**1974**  
Anthony had been nicknamed Tony.

The reason was fairly simple. As an infant and then toddler, he hadn’t been able to say his full name and just called himself “Tony”. It stuck. Howard was probably partially responsible for that. He was one of the first people to begin consistently calling his son “Tony”. Maria followed suit and soon everyone was doing it.

Currently, Howard glanced up from his work to the little adjoining workshop that’d been specifically designed with Tony in mind. To get in and out of his own workshop, Howard had to pass through Tony’s, but he’d done that on purpose. That way he could drop Tony off on the way in and pick him up on the way out. It also allowed Maria, Jarvis, and Ana to come down and get Tony for one reason or another without actually disturbing Howard’s work.

His son was laying on his belly on the floor, feet swinging in the air, and using tools that Howard had specifically designed to be safe in his hands while still getting the work done. Well, the power tools at least. If he did anything indicating improper use, they instantly flicked off. Howard, satisfied that Tony was all right, returned to his own work.

About an hour later, he looked up again as Tony suddenly sprung to his feet, face alight and what seemed to be a newly constructed circuit board in his hands. Howard set his own work aside and stood up. He pushed open the door and stepped into the room. ‘What have you got there, Tony?’

Tony turned around and grinned at his father. ‘I built a circuit board, daddy!’

A swell of pride filled Howard. It looked like one too, albeit cobbled together by inexperienced hands. But Tony couldn’t be expected to build a perfect one on his first try, especially seeing as he hadn’t even told Howard he’d been doing it. He grinned and crouched down. ‘Well, let’s take a look-see.’

The damn thing worked.

***

 **Howling Commandoes Base**  
The Howlies crowded around behind James as he added another picture to their Tony Scrapbook.

This one showed the little boy holding up a cobbled-together circuit board with a wide grin. His father was crouched just behind him, one hand on his shoulder and the other resting just so on the console of a monitor, which was hooked up to the circuit board in Tony’s hands and showed it to be a functioning one. Underneath the picture was an article detailing, and practically cooing over, the boy prodigy who’d built his first circuit board.

‘So, why did Stark put him in the spotlight for this?’ Frenchie asked. ‘I mean, I get that he’s proud but...’

‘Howard always intended to at some point,’ James said. ‘I did ask. When Howard first made his fortune and became a public figure, he had to learn to navigate through media storms very quickly, especially with how they will twist everything just to sell a good story. He figures if he raises Tony and teaches him how to do it, it’ll negate the problems he had.’

‘I get it.’ Dum Dum scratched his chin. ‘If Tony learns how to handle the press when he’s still a little kid any mistakes he makes will be overlooked. Whereas if Stark waited until he was a teenager before he started, the kid would be crucified, so to speak, every time he made any kind of mistake.’

Gabe nodded. ‘That’s not even mentioning the fact that Howard’s womanising is apparently an inherited behaviour. So when Tony hits puberty, he’s gonna pick it up. They’re gonna give him more than enough grief for that. Better to start teaching the kid to work a crowd early.’

***

 **Stark Mansion**  
Maria studied the catalogue.

The couch needed replacing. One of Tony’s mishaps had lit the arm on fire. It hadn’t helped that Howard had thought this was hilarious. At least he didn’t laugh in front of Tony. Even though he had clearly been fighting not to as he put out the fire, and then turned around and told Tony “maybe we ought to keep our work for the workshop, huh?”

Maria wasn’t very happy. But, at the same time, she knew that Tony was just excited about getting featured in that engineering magazine. He was just about bouncing all over the place. Maria didn’t like exposing Tony to the public eye, but she had to admit that Howard was right. It was going to happen to him, sooner or later, so Tony needed to be prepared for it. He needed to know how to navigate the shark-infested waters that the media occupied.

And it was better to start teaching him early.

Maria looked up and into the small kitchenette just off this particular living room. Tony was sitting on a stood with Howard leaning over him and showing him something. Maria wasn’t sure but she thought they were the blueprints for the Arc Reactor. The Arc Reactor which Howard had reverse-engineered from the Tesseract in the sixties now powered his factory. Howard had dreams of miniaturising it, but he hadn’t managed it yet.

Howard appeared to be talking their son through the process.

***

Tony looked over the blueprints his father had place in front of him.

His little brain latched onto all the details, as intricate and complicated as they were. The engineering details were a marvel to behold. But one thing did catch his attention. He looked up at his father. ‘Who is Anton Vanko?’

His daddy’s face did the unhappy twisty thing. ‘Oh, he helped me build the prototype. I was going to share the patent with him. When someone contributes, they should reap what they sow. But then he tried to steal it when we’d barely gotten it finished. He ended up deported back to Russia and now the patent’s entirely in my own name.’

‘Oh,’ Tony said.

But because Tony Stark was four years old, he didn’t think much of it beyond that: Anton Vanko was the person who’d helped his daddy make the Arc Reactor which powered their factory, and then he tried to steal it. To him, that was all there was to it and there was no reason to dwell on it.

One day, Tony would come face-to-face with Ivan Vanko.

One day, Tony would have to deal with the consequences of what had happened before he was even born.

One day, Tony would look the other man in the eye, smile sadly, and say, “If our roles were reversed, I might have done something like this to you and your family.”

One day, Tony would stand before the press and tell them the story of Howard Stark and Anton Vanko so they understood why a part of New York City was torn apart by someone with Arc Reactor technology.

One day, Tony would visit his father’s recently installed grave and tell him what had happened.

One day, but not today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand now I'm off to write the story that I just inspired myself to write.


	3. On Vacation in Staffordshire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family vacations are a staple of Tony's childhood.

**1975**  
Tony Stark ran over the glade after his older cousin.

Merton Holmes was only a year older than him but, to Tony, that seemed like a lot. Tony liked it when they came to Staffordshire. Usually, he was surrounded by people who didn’t understand the simplest thing. Only daddy seemed to be able to keep up with him. Daddy had said something about them being geniuses, so they couldn’t expect other people to keep up with them. He didn’t really understand it though.

When they came to Staffordshire, though, everyone was as smart as he and daddy.

Tony usually played with Merton, because Merton was closest to his age. Merton was Uncle Acer’s son.

Both of them yelped at the chill of the stream as they ran through it.

Merton laughed. ‘Wow, that was stupid!’

‘What was?’ Tony called to him.

‘Running through the stream at full speed!’

‘But it was fun!’

Both boys laughed as they continued their race through the Estate.

***

Ana was standing on the porch as she waited for the boys to get back. The two of them had just taken off running in an impromptu race. When she saw them coming back, she sighed to herself. They were wet and muddy and covered in twigs and leaves.

‘Where have you boys been?’ she asked, even though she could be fairly sure due to the contents of the debris clinging to them.

‘Is that a rhetorical question?’ Merton asked cheekily.

Ana chuckled and shook her head.

It’d taken a while to get used to the genius and absolute lack of social grace, but Ana had long-since done so. It had taken Edwin significantly longer. But it stood to reason, in Ana’s mind, that when one had genius-level intellect, their minds might work differently to the average person. The Holmeses were not such a mystery to her in that regard. If your only answer to why something was the way it was happened to be “propriety”, it simply wasn’t good enough.

And Ana was fine with that.

‘Come on, boys,’ she said. ‘Let’s get inside and clean you up.’

***

The board game was set on the table – a table which was lined on all sides by super-smart children.

‘Damn it, Tony,’ Sable said, counting out the money again.

Tony just grinned and held his hand out. Sable handed over the monopoly notes.

‘How does he do that?’ Harper’s son, Ricky, asked with a touch of mock annoyance.

‘Because dad taught me how to do business,’ Tony said. ‘Monopoly isn’t that different. It just a touch easier – mostly because you actually start with money rather than having to make all of it.’

Merton chuckled. ‘You mean like you’ll be doing when you take over SI?’

‘Exactly.’

***

Yes, Tony liked coming to Staffordshire, and they came here every summer.

But, summer came to an end and so too did his time with his cousins. So, Tony savoured it. He knew daddy did as well. He would get lost in all kinds of conversations and philosophical debates with Uncle Palmer and Uncle Acer, and all of the aunts and cousins as well. Tony’s philosophical debates with his cousins consisted mostly of the difference between right and wrong and how extenuating circumstances affected this distinction.

It wasn’t the end of the world when they had to get up and leave though. Tony would see them again next summer. And they all wrote each other letters very frequently. It helped him feel less alone in the world. It reminded him that just because he was the smartest person in his classes, it didn’t mean no one was as smart as him.

His family made Tony happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is short but there will be more Stark/Holmes interactions in the story I'm currently writing for this.


	4. Beyond His Peers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony Stark skipped grades.

**1977**  
Howard sat in the office next to Maria, flicking over the grades that he’d been handed. He wasn’t overly surprised. Like Howard had been at his age, Tony was acing all of his subjects. Although, Howard couldn’t ever recall his parents being called in to his school on account of it. Then again, the world had changed from those days.

Howard flicked the file shut and handed it back.

‘As you can see,’ the headmaster said. ‘Tony’s outstripping his peers by miles. As a result, he’s getting bored in class and becoming rather disruptive.’

‘So was I at his age,’ Howard said.

‘Yes, quite,’ the headmaster said. ‘There is a...new idea being tested out that we’re calling academic acceleration. What that means is that we take a child out of their classroom and put them in a more advanced class.’

‘So, in effect, he’d be skipping grades?’ Maria asked.

‘Only one or two grades, but yes,’ the headmaster said.

‘Can we discuss this for a moment?’ Howard asked, standing up.

‘Of course.’

Howard and Maria stepped outside the office.

‘The press would have a field day,’ Maria said.

Howard rubbed his eye. ‘At the same time, I can see why they’d want to do it. When I was a kid my teachers had to keep looking for things for me to do because I got bored and I started disrupting the class too. At least, this way, he’d actually be challenged.’

‘And then what happens if he streams ahead of that class too?’

‘Hm.’ Howard rubbed the back of the neck. ‘With how we learn, that’s actually on the cards. I guess they might just skip him ahead again. I might have to start teaching him to run the company early in the end.’

‘But we’re gonna do it anyway, aren’t we?’

Howard sighed. ‘Think about it, Maria. He himself has said he doesn’t have friends; he has followers. He’s seven. He’s gonna have a stupid idea, like I did when I was just a little older than him. We’re gonna have to do something about it soon or...’ He trailed off. ‘Let’s be honest, I was lucky. Getting him out of that classroom is probably the best thing for him.’

‘But he’ll be the smallest person in his new class!’ Maria insisted.

‘I know,’ Howard said, frowning. ‘We’ve only got a few options, and they’re all bad. I’m just going for the least bad one. Besides, it’s only a couple of years. At worst, they’ll just think of him as a nerd.’

Maria sighed. ‘Howard...’

‘I know, I know.’ Howard lifted his hands defensively. ‘But I think Tony wouldn’t even notice it. God knows I wouldn’t have.’

‘Not at first, at least.’ Maria sighed. ‘I guess you’re right. He’ll probably even enjoy it.’

***

About a week later, they were both proven right.

Tony just about skipped into the house ahead of Jarvis.

‘How was school?’ Howard asked from where he was slumped on the couch.

‘Great!’ Tony ran over and jumped on Howard’s lap. Even though his head was aching from what was probably the longest day in his memory, he smiled as his son began chattering. ‘It was actually hard today. I actually had to really think! And no one was following me around like a batch of lovesick puppies!’

Well, there’d come a day when he actually enjoy that, albeit of a particular variety.

A grin came to Howard’s face as he listened to Tony chatter on about the day as he remembered his father’s stories of his own exploits prior to marriage. At the time, Howard had been horrified to think his father had engaged in the same sort of behaviour. Now, as an adult with a child of his own, he realised that Reg Stark had been planning that for years. He’d been waiting for Howard to get old enough and start womanising just so he could gross him out.

Because Howard was rather looking forward to the day when he did it to Tony.

***

Jarvis rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Tony was young, impressionable, and far more lonely than he let on. Yet, when one looked at the Holmeses...it seemed to be a system. While they were “forced”, as they liked to say, to mingle in everyday society, they never really fit in. They were too smart and too blunt to really fit in to any kind of group or clique.

If they did find a friend, it was usually only one or two and it was generally in their adulthood.

Though Jarvis wasn’t sure how allowing the young sir to skip grades was productive to this. He didn’t seem really to miss anyone. Perhaps there had been more truth than Jarvis had anticipated in Tony calling the group that surrounded him followers rather than friends. In his new classroom, Jarvis knew, Tony was considered as more of a curiosity than anything else. He was the son of a genius so it was sort of expected that he had a high intellect himself.

People didn’t really say very much on the matter.

But Jarvis still wasn’t sure this was productive.

***

‘Sarge! Sarge!’

James turned and grinned as he saw little Tony charging at him full steam. He dropped his knapsack and ducked down to catch the pint-sized genius and swing him up into the air. The little boy giggled and kicked his feet about. James grinned and settled Tony on his shoulders before he asked.

‘What’s this I hear about you skipping grades?’ James asked.

‘Yup!’ Tony proudly proclaimed. ‘Mommy said it’s because I’m smarter than anybody else!’

‘I doubt mommy used quite those words,’ James remarked, keeping his voice light but stern. He’d learned his lesson from Steve that enabling was not going to help the kid in the long run.

‘Well, no,’ Tony said. ‘But it means the same thing in the end. School was boring and now...well, it wasn’t for a while.’ He drummed his hands on James’s head. ‘Why is everything so easy?’

James snorted in amusement.


	5. Problems Every Kid has

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has to deal with bullying in their lives. It's nice to have people behind you when you do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP Stan Lee.
> 
> 1922-2018.
> 
> We will miss you, and your lovely cameos.

**1978**  
Tony tried to slip by, but daddy reached out and caught him by the shoulder.

The sound of the coffee mug going onto the nearby table told Tony that daddy had seen. Then daddy turned him around and took a gentle hold of his chin. Turning his head slightly, daddy eyed the large bruise on the side of Tony’s face. ‘Where did this come from?’

‘Tripped,’ Tony muttered.

‘Then why did you try to squirrel past daddy?’ daddy asked.

‘Um...’

‘Did someone hit you?’ daddy asked.

Tony shook his head.

‘Did someone shove you?’

Tears burned behind Tony’s eyes and he ducked his head. Daddy then picked him up. Tony curled into daddy’s chest and clung to him. Daddy pulled some ice out and sat Tony on the bench. Tony flinched as the ice came in contact with his bruise but he watched daddy’s face change to a twisted scowl thing.

Finally, Tony spoke. ‘I don’t know what I did to make him angry, daddy.’

The scowl deepened. ‘You didn’t do anything, Tony. That boy was just a bully, shoving someone smaller than him just because he could.’ Daddy sighed. ‘Bullies are everywhere, Tony. There’s no getting away from them.’

‘Why?’ Tony asked.

‘Because bullies are people who are jealous of other people, or who have no power in their own lives. They want to tear down people they perceive to be either better or weaker than them. Then again, some of them do it just because they think it’s fun and they don’t realise what they’re doing actually constitutes as bullying. In this case, though, I don’t think that was it. You’ll get more people who are jealous of you.’

‘I will?’

Howard nodded. ‘You’re rich, you’re a genius, and you got good looks.’ The last point would be more prevalent as he got older. ‘To the common man, it looks like you’ve got everything just handed to you on a silver platter. With rich people, there is a stigma that we get everything we want practically by snapping our finger.’ Daddy clicked in demonstration. ‘It’s not a new idea by any means. It has been around for centuries and it’s not going anywhere any time soon.’

‘Just cause we have money?’ Tony asked.

‘Yes, just cause we have money. People who struggle to make ends meet, or who even just have less money than us, tell themselves that we’re lazy, opportunistic, and greedy, among whatever other words they can come up with, because it makes them feel better about the fact that we have the money. They may try to use us for their own ends, which was why you had that pack of followers at your old school, but at the end of the day it all comes down to money.’

Tony considered it for a long moment. It was long enough for mommy to come in, see daddy tending to his bruise and rush over to find out what’d happened. Finally, Tony made a decision. ‘People are nasty.’

‘Most of them are all right,’ daddy said. ‘It’s just that the nasty ones are the ones that actually try to get close to you when you have money.’

***

Howard smirked, despite the fact that he was on the phone. ‘...and,’ he finished up, ‘if that kid isn’t brought to task over it, I’ll be transferring Tony to another school. I’m sure the press would be _fascinated_ to know why Tony Stark was shipped out of your school.’

He hung up.

‘Sure,’ Maria said, not without an edge of humour. ‘Threaten the school’s reputation.’ She looked at him. ‘You do realise that this will happen again no matter what we do?’

Howard sighed and picked up the coffee pot from the bench in front of him. ‘I know.’ He poured himself a fresh mug. ‘Unfortunately, bullying is one of those things that a lot of teachers have a tendency to dismiss as kids just being kids.’

Maria scowled. ‘Shoving an eight-year old into the edge of a stack of lockers is not “kids just being kids”.’

Howard raised his eyebrows and nodded. ‘Well, that’s the line he tried to feed me.’

Maria scoffed. ‘No wonder you threatened the school’s reputation.’

Howard scowled. ‘That aside, I’m actually surprised it took so long for some little shit to decide to make his displeasure at the presence of a child genius in the school known.’

‘I’m not,’ Maria said. ‘Tony’s still a little boy. A lot of his classmates would consider him a nerd, but still just a little boy. It wouldn’t be seen as...cool to be seen picking on him. He’ll probably get a lot more of it when he’s older.’

‘Not the nicest thought.’

‘No.’

***

Palmer came to America for business and Howard put him up in the Stark Mansion.

‘It’s gonna get more physical when you’re bigger,’ Palmer’s daughter, Sable, told Tony when he told her about the incident. ‘That was actually low-grade. He didn’t actually hit you. He just pushed you and you hit the edge of a locker. When that time comes, you want to know how to defend yourself. If it helps, I can teach you.’

***

‘I had to rebuild it,’ Sable said, walking around the human-shaped dummy in the workshop. ‘The one we usually use is back in England. When you hit it,’ she punched it in the nose and the eyes lit up a green colour, ‘the eyes tell you the damage you’ve done. If they’re green, you’re safe. If they go red,’ she struck the nose again, but this time with the heel of her hand and striking upwards; the eyes flashed red, ‘then you’ve just killed the guy.’

She turned to Tony, who looked up at the dummy in fascination. He nodded at her warning.

‘The important thing about fighting,’ Sable told him, ‘is to understand the damage you’re inflicting upon another human being before you actually inflict it.’

‘That makes sense,’ Tony said. ‘I mean, you wouldn’t want to accidently cripple somebody, would you?’

‘No,’ Sable said. ‘And you’ve also got to cover your own hide, legally. That’s why we never strike unless we’re struck at first. That way, we can claim self-defence if somebody tries to sue us for the medical bills or whatever.’

‘That happens?’ Tony asked.

Sable chuckled. ‘Yes, it happens. We’ve been taken to court over damages we inflicted, usually because they don’t want to pay the hospital bills so they try and get us to do it, but their claims are always thrown out because we’re always acting in self-defence.’ She grinned. ‘I remember one judge even explicitly said that the guy’s injuries were his own silly fault.’

Tony cackled in delight.

***

‘I’m not sure about this,’ Maria said, following Palmer’s wife, Sophie Holmes, out of the workshop, where they’d just watched Sable tutor Tony through all the weak points in the average human body.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Sophie said. ‘Holmeses all learn this stuff. By the time they’re in their teens, they could tell you not only what damage they inflict, but how long it’ll take to heal.’

Maria looked at her. ‘So it’s basically an intimate knowledge of how anatomy works?’

‘No more and no less.’

‘I still don’t like it.’

‘Well, you’re a highly intelligent and reasonable woman,’ Sophie said. ‘Which can’t be said about a lot of others. Humans, as a general rule of thumb, are a violent species. It’s easier for us to resort to violence, and a lot of people do take that route. Knowing how to defend yourself from that sort isn’t the worst thing in the world.’

‘...I suppose not.’


	6. The Angry Woman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To Tony, that's all Peggy Carter is.

**1979**  
Technically, she could’ve returned in 1965.

Unfortunately, she had quite a bit of trouble with this plan. Having been degraded to a secretarial role, Peg hadn’t been able to afford the trip. That was not even mentioning the way everyone had wanted to subvert her from returning to America. Every time she tried to get over there, she found herself stopped and hindered.

Only now had she been able to board a plane and head across there.

Part of her wanted to see this alleged wife of Howard’s with her own eyes. The very notion that Howard Stark, of all people, could fall in love and get married was as preposterous as the very first time she’d heard it. He had to have gotten her pregnant or something like that. She was sure, when she arrived, there would be some lazy 20 year old bearing the Stark name hanging about the place.

Well, she’d deal with it once she got there.

***

Howard had gotten a phone call from Acer, informing him that Peg had boarded a plane for America.

More than anything else, he cursed her timing. Tony had just gone on Fall Vacation, so he was home and he'd be in her view. The most he could hope for was that she tried to barge into his office. That wasn’t very likely, though, especially not when she knew he had an army of security men who’d been armed with tasers back in the 50s. Sure enough, the...visit came at about a quarter to ten at night.

Howard had been about to head to bed when the pounding on his front door started. He walked to a panel and checked the security cameras. Sure, enough, there was Peggy Carter. Even though the picture wasn’t in colour, it looked like she hadn’t changed much besides getting older. A part of Howard was tempted to open the door just to tell her to come back in respectable hours. He had a nine year old in the house, after all. But Howard knew better than to give her any kind of opening.

So he called the police on her.

It didn’t stop the noise from waking up the household apparently. Jarvis was the first down. He looked at the screen and, Howard was pleased to note, groaned. Next down came Maria. She looked at Peg on the screen, still stubbornly pounding on the wood and with no idea that there was a police car heading over, and sat down on the couch, correctly guessing who she was. Of course, then Tony walked down, rubbing his eyes.

‘Who’s the noisy person?’ he asked in a yawn. ‘I can hear them all the way up in my room.’

‘Just someone I used to know who apparently still thinks the world revolves around her.’ Howard didn’t tell Tony any more than that. There was no need to unload his problems on his young son.

Tony wandered over and looked at the screen. ‘She’s old,’ he decided. ‘She should know better by now.’

This, of course, caused the whole lot of them to crack up laughing.

But, the police showed up, effectively stopping her from trying to break down their front door. Howard turned the microphone on so they could all hear her insisting to the police that she was actually a friend of Howard’s and she was just visiting. Only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that they didn’t believe her. After all, a friend wouldn’t come pounding on the door at such an hour.

Tony chose that moment to hop down from his mother’s side, walk over to the front door and open it just to say to Peg, ‘You woke me up, angry lady. Go away.’

The look on Peg’s face at the sight of a nine year old was hilarious. Howard barely kept from laughing at her. Jarvis moved over and pulled Tony back before closing the door again, with something of an embarrassed smile. It was even funnier that Peg then demanded to know who Tony was, only to be mocked that her story of being Howard’s friend was falling apart if she didn’t even know what his only child looked like.

Once that was over, they turned in.

But Howard expected another visit from Peg the next day.

He wasn’t wrong.

The first opportunity she had was when Howard was arriving to work. He wasn’t surprised to drive in and see her waiting in the parking lot. Rolling his eyes, but figuring he may as well get it over with, Howard pulled into his usual parking spot, grabbed his briefcase and got out of the car. As he locked up, he heard the familiar stride of Peggy Carter.

Interesting that he could tell Peg from her stride.

‘Are you quite finished fannying about?’ Peg demanded.

‘And hello to you too,’ Howard said. He looked at her. ‘Do you ever greet anyone properly?’

‘You called the police on me!’ Peg snapped.

‘Yeah,’ Howard said. ‘What would you do if somebody came pounding on your door like that in the middle of the night?’

‘It wasn’t the middle of the night!’

‘Close enough.’

‘What’s this about you getting married?’ Peg demanded. ‘Did you get her pregnant?’

‘How is that any of your business?’ Howard asked. ‘Besides, you’re always gonna think the worst of me so I won’t waste my breath.’ He stopped at the doors, just by his security guards. ‘All right. So what do you want this time?’

Peg’s back went up. ‘Why do you assume I want something?’

‘Because you always do. You’re incapable of thinking of people as anything beyond a means to an end.’

Peg’s eyes narrowed. ‘And how much money did you make off of Bucky’s blood?’ she asked pointedly.

Howard ignored the bait. ‘Just answer the question. I doubt you’re here on a permanent visa like you were last time. You’d be surprised how quickly my legal team can get a restraining order out on someone. This is your only chance, so get on with it.’

Peg studied him, as if trying to gauge how serious he was. Finally, she said, ‘HYDRA’s still out there.’

‘In other news, water is wet,’ Howard quipped. The guards behind him had a chuckled between themselves.

Peg glared at them before turning her attention back to Howard. ‘This isn’t a joke, Howard! If we don’t do something about them, they could cause untold devastation!’

This time the guards behind him actually laughed.

Howard smirked. ‘Carter, HYDRA hasn’t had that kind of power since 1949. The only places they get any power are the places where the government is unstable, and everyone knows they’re there. They’re no greater of a threat than any other terrorist organisation. But if you want my money to build up some kind of shadowy “government” organisation, you’ll have to look elsewhere.’

Peg narrowed her eyes. ‘This is for the greater good!’ she insisted.

‘Really?’ Howard asked. ‘Is this the World Security Council again?’

Peg jerked. ‘How...?’

‘There’s no secret my cousins don’t know,’ Howard said. ‘The World Security Council’s authority is self-proclaimed. There’s no contract legalising them; no treaty or any other sort of agreement to legitimise them in the eyes of anybody. The local mailman has more authority than they do.’

Peg’s face twisted.

‘And what are they so secretive for?’ Howard demanded. ‘What have they got to hide?’

‘There are things the public shouldn’t know for their own safety.’

‘The CIA and FBI both do that without trying to hide their existence,’ Howard said. ‘I’d say it’s more like they’re HYDRA and they appealed to your ego and preference for doing whatever the hell you like.’ In fact, that had been confirmed back in the 50s. Once they got the name of the World Security Council, the Holmeses and looked into the covert group.

‘They are _not_ HYDRA!’ Peg snapped. ‘Do you really think I’m so daft I don’t know the enemy when I see them?’

‘Yup.’ Howard disappeared past his security guards.

He heard Peg try to follow, but she was stopped by the guards. Howard pulled his cell phone out of his belt pouch. He really had to work on compacting these things. They were a real nuisance to have to carry around. Maybe he could sit down with Tony and work on ones that would fit into a person’s pocket.

Howard called up legal to get the restraining order started.

***

Peg ended up deported again.

It was like she simply refused to learn from her mistakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think, even in this timeline, HYDRA would still try to use Peg's hubris to get a clandestine government organisation up and running wherein they could act as they did within S.H.I.E.L.D., and Peg would still see Howard as the best way to fund such a thing.


	7. The Flying Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yet another prompt. :)

**1980**  
Not that James wasn’t happy he was finally seeing the flying car but... ‘Why am I driving it?’

‘Because someone’s gotta!’ Tony insisted. ‘And if anything goes wrong, you’ll be fine. No guarantee of that for us.’

Howard chuckled and ruffled Tony’s hair. ‘Tony, what did I say about telling someone they’re doing something because they’re more durable than us?’

‘Don’t do it?’ Tony grinned a shit-eating grin at his father.

James chuckled and shook his head. ‘You two are just as bad as each other. All right. Give me the stupid helmet.’

As he climbed into the driver’s seat and Howard and Tony pointed out which switches did what, James mused on how he’d gotten here. Truth be told, whatever debt he owed Howard for pulling him out of that HYDRA hell-hole had probably already been paid back over double in the years since. Yet, here he was.

Honestly, James had sort of a soft spot for the Starks.

Back at the start of the war, he’d looked up to Howard. From a distance, the man had been everything you could aspire to be. He was rich, good-looking, and brilliant. And he’d come from the same sort of neighbourhood that James himself did. If he could do it, it felt like anyone could. Meeting him in person had been incredible, but not as incredible as finding out that while unquestionably brilliant, he was also wonderfully human – with a chronic case of foot-in-mouth.

_‘Doesn’t seem so dangerous. Hard to see what all the fuss is about.’_

_BOOM!_

Maria was a real lady – polite, diplomatic, but extremely cutting when she had to be. She was artistic, graceful, and the perfect hostess. She was exactly the kind of woman Howard needed. She was his PR department. James had sometimes watched in awe as she made something that the public really wasn’t ready for – really couldn’t comprehend – seem not only palatable, but entirely appealing.

Then there was Tony. For years, Howard and Maria had tried for a child. Miscarriage after miscarriage followed, but then along came Tony. He was inquisitive, brilliant as his father, and always happy. While he mimicked most things his father did, what he did mimic from his mother was her ways of handling large groups of people. Tony was fascinated watching a crowd bend to his whims. He was intrigued by how people changed their opinions or responses based on the quantity of people they were surrounded by.

He still thought it was stupid, but he was fascinated by the science behind it.

 _‘You shouldn’t change your mind based on what everyone else thinks,’_ he’d once announced to James.

But such was the power of mob mentality.

Part of James wondered if humans were a little bit psychic and that was how it happened.

But he had to focus on the now. He had to admit. The lift off was kind of cool. And driving a car through the air, no matter how slowly, was even cooler. Right now, though, it seemed to be more of a hover-car than a flying one. Still, there was a certain amount of fun in it as James steered it through the area of the workshop.

‘How are we looking, Sarge?’ Howard called up to him, as Tony excitedly bounced up and down on his toes.

‘Pretty good.’ The car suddenly backfired and jerked – and then plummeted. Moving fast, James jumped and rolled out. There was a loud crash as the car landed on the Mustang. ‘Huh,’ he said as he landed. ‘Famous last words.’

‘Bummer!’ Tony grabbed the fire extinguisher. After wrestling with it for a bit, he sprayed the smouldering junk heap that remained of the two cars. ‘I think I need a robot to do this,’ he grumbled.

There was a bang from upstairs as the door was shoved open. ‘What was that?’ Maria demanded, rushing down.

‘Um...’ Howard rubbed the back of his neck.

Maria rushed into the workshop and stopped. James grinned sheepishly. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. ‘Howard, why is the Mustang sandwiched under your flying car?’

Howard grinned over his shoulder, looking a little afraid. ‘I...still have some kinks to work out.’

Maria didn’t look impressed. ‘Was Tony in the lab when you discovered these kinks?’

‘...He was behind me...?’

Maria folded her arms. ‘Howard.’

‘Right!’ Tony tossed the fire extinguisher aside and rushed past his parents. ‘I’m gonna go build that robot!’

James was quite eager to excuse himself as well. ‘Oh! Uh...thing!’ He bolted out of the workshop.


	8. Papa Wolf Trope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starks don't pay ransoms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt chapter!

**1981**  
Howard looked at the note in his hands.

Beside him, Maria worried her lower lip. ‘Are you going to pay it?’

‘Oh, I’ll give them something all right,’ Howard just about growled. He looked over at Jarvis. ‘When was he taken?’

‘I...’ Jarvis stammered. ‘I don’t know, sir. I expect during one of his expeditions down the street from school.’

Howard scowled. Tony’s habit of ducking down the road to the store during lunchtime was not uncommon amongst schoolchildren. Hell, Howard could remember doing the same thing in his youth. It would figure, though, that some opportunistic bastards had seized the opportunity to get the jump on him. Howard knew they were used to teenagers but you’d think the idiots would be more conscientious of a pre-pubescent boy genius that they had a responsibility over.

Evidently not.

Oh, well, at least Tony was due to graduate soon.

As soon as Howard got him back.

***

Tony paced around the room again, looking for the exit.

They’d finally left him alone in here, probably because he kept biting them. He kept looking around, though, seeking an exit. The room was barren and it didn’t seem to have much room for anything, much less any secret passageways. It didn’t seem to matter anyway. After a while he heard gunshots and swearing. As a gunshot went off right next to his cell door, Tony jumped back.

The door slammed open and one of the thugs fell through, using all sorts of words that Tony’s mom would wash his mouth out for. Then a familiar man stepped in.

‘Dad!’ Tony rushed over.

‘Tony!’ His dad knelt down and checked him over. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Uh huh.’ Tony nodded. ‘I knew they wouldn’t kill me because they needed me for the ransom.’

A strange look crossed his father’s face.

‘And they’re still not getting it,’ his dad said, taking his hand and leading him out. ‘All yours, Sarge.’

‘Hiya, Sarge!’ Tony called as he followed his father out of the room and saw Srgt. Barnes, holding several of the bad guys at gunpoint.

Tony was happy to see the rest of the Howlies too.

***

The building where Tony had been held had been decimated (not literally, but more figuratively).

Doors had been kicked in, windows shattered, and every man who’d crossed Howard Stark’s path ended up taking a trip to the hospital, either to be treated for gunshot wounds or permanent bodily damage. Howard Stark himself barely had a hair out of place as he walked his son out and then drove him home.

To say this was the only kidnapping Tony Stark was the subject of would be a lie.

But such attempts always had the same result.


	9. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to hold on on putting this up until today. ;)
> 
> I'm in Australia so it's Christmas morning for me. As this is a Christmas chapter, if you want to hold out reading it for Christmas day, I'm giving you the opportunity now.

**1982**

_We wish you a merry Christmas_

_We wish you a merry Christmas_

_We wish you a merry Christmas_

_And a Happy New Year_

_Good tidings we bring_

_To you and your King_

_We wish you a merry Christmas_

_And a Happy New Year._

Tony Stark pitched a snowball. It hit Merton in the side of the face. His cousin laughed and immediately launched another snowball. Of course, at that moment, Tony also got pelted with three more snowballs from three different cousins because he’d been focused on the one. Tony laughed and tried to dodge out of the way. The thing was he was kind of cornered against his snow fort.

Tony’s backyard, right now, honestly looked a bit like a camping ground for Eskimos.

Snowballs flew all over the place, though, making it easily recognisable for what it was. A few hours later, though, they all came in, cold and exhausted and all laughing.   
Immediately, they were all sent upstairs to change out of their wets clothes before they could come down for Christmas lunch.

When Tony ran down, he spotted one of the Howlies – specifically, ‘Hey, Dum Dum!’ He got a childish thrill out of saying Dugan’s nickname. As a little kid he’d giggled every time he said it.

Dum Dum turned and grinned. ‘Hey, Tony! What’s this I hear about you becoming a senior next year?’

‘I’m just that smart!’ Tony announced, rushing over to hug the older man.

‘Modest too,’ the Sarge remarked from where he and Maria were chatting to a young lady Tony had never seen before.

Tony looked at her curiously as he walked over. ‘Hi, who are you?’

‘Tony,’ his mother gently admonished him. ‘Don’t be rude. Srgt Barnes brought Miss Rosette over to meet us. It would do no good to make her feel ill at ease.’

‘Oh, it’s fine,’ Miss Rosette said.

Tony looked at the woman and quickly guesstimated her age. Then he looked at the Sarge with a cheeky grin. ‘Isn’t she a little young for you, Sarge?’

‘Tony!’ his mother admonished him again as the room broke out in laughter. Even Miss Rosette had slapped a hand over her mouth, even as her eyes glittered as she attempted to hold in her own laughter.

She managed to compose herself by the time it died down though and answered for Bucky. ‘Oh, I don’t know. It could be worse. I could be the niece of an old girlfriend.’

Tony’s face screwed up. ‘Ewwwwww!’

Howard barked out another laugh from across the room. ‘Oh, my God! She’s out-sassing a child prodigy! Keep her, Sarge!’

The room erupted into laughter again.

***

There was no division between the family, Jarvis noted (perhaps for the millionth time) as he set yet another dish onto the large table.

Certainly, there were the ones born with the hereditary genius-level intellect and those of above-average intellect who had simply married into the family. But they all operated on the same wavelength. For instance, young Tony saw no difference between talking to his father from talking to Aunt Sophie.

Years of exposure to this family had done well for Jarvis. Even though he felt it was more the exposure to the servants that had pushed it right along. Where he had once thought his employer immature and in need of correcting, he now understood that he had overlooked the fact that this man had made himself a millionaire from practically nothing in a span of but a few years.

He now understood that he had allowed Margaret Carter’s paranoid outlook to influence him.

In hindsight, he could now see several instances where he should have spoken up...where he should have left it alone...where he should have been a loyal butler rather than the fool he had been.

And now he understood what he had been blind to before.

Howard Stark was a remarkable man, and his son was well on his way to growing into a remarkable man.

Jarvis only wished his dear Ana was still alive to see it.

***

Maria pulled out the camera, long after everyone had headed home.

She knew, once upon a time, Howard’s mansion had been a big empty space on Christmas. She knew, in fact, that it was one of these big empty Christmases that had opened his eyes to the world around him and led him to cut off Peggy Carter’s gravy train – but he’d always been very unspecific about what precisely happened. Seeing as he seemed uncomfortable with it, Maria had never pushed for the details.

Now, every Christmas them, the Howlies, and the entire Holmes branch of the family gathered either here or on the Holmes Estate to celebrate the holiday, despite none of the genius family being overly religious. There was always people and laughter and games and lots and lots of food.

It was the only kind of gathering Howard liked.

Slipping into the ground floor living room, Maria smiled and lifted the camera. She took one of these photos every year, because every year Tony and Howard managed to fall asleep on the couch together. When he’d been small, Tony had always been tucked into the crook of Howard’s arm and burrowed into his chest.

Now, with him at 12 years old and approaching the form of a tall and lanky teenager, they’d flopped down a bit differently.

Howard had flopped down first, onto his stomach and with an arm hanging off of the edge of the sofa. His face half hidden in a cushion. Tony had flopped over the top of him, but the blood had to be rushing to the boy’s head. He was upside down, knees hooked over the back of the sofa and his head hanging over the edge.

She’d nudge him awake and move him later.

Smiling, Maria lifted the camera.

_CLICK!_

That was going straight in the Christmas scrapbook.


	10. Tiny No More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James Rhodes meets the boy prodigy who will one day be his best friend.

**1983**  
Tony stared at the acceptance letter in his hands.

It wasn’t every day a 13 year old got accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There were a couple of factors involved. One: Tony was actually a high school senior, despite his age. Two: his last name was Stark, and he came from a long line of genii. Three: he’d been so bored – his work being so easy – that he’d actually sat down and built that robot he’d talked about as a kid and then entered it in the State Science Fair.

It won first prize, and he got an instant ticket in MIT as a result.

The robot in question peered over his shoulder – or what counted for peering for it – and beeped at him inquisitively. Tony looked over his shoulder at it and smiled lightly.

Dad had promised to take care of DUM-E.

Tony chuckled at the thought. Maybe he and dad would eventually be able to say that name without giggling between themselves.

But frankly, it was the only thing the poor thing would answer to.

But if Tony could build this...maybe he could build something more sophisticated.

***

 **1984**  
When Corporal James Rhodes’ Commanding Officer had sent him to MIT to get a college degree in order to qualify for command training, he had been pleased that he’d been singled out as having command potential. Then, his CO had informed him that the Dean wanted to meet with him a week early to make “an unusual request”.

The...unusual request...Yeah, it was unusual.

A child prodigy was coming to MIT at about the same time Rhodes was.

Specifically, Anthony Edward Stark – better known as Tony Stark.

Rhodes had, of course, heard of the Starks. They first rose to prominence in the Second World War, starting out in the weapons business. But their true interest was in technology in general. They tapered off of weapons and, eventually, only produced for the military tech that was only intended for defence.

And those defences never failed.

Rhodes may have been green but he wasn’t dumb. The military wanted him to be a foot in the door to gain favour with the Starks. They were hoping for weapons again. Look after their little boy, and the brass hoped to get offensive weapons out of Howard Stark. It didn’t really sit right with Rhodes, using a kid like that.

He almost said no.

But then he thought of that kid – doubtlessly wide-eyed and naive. And filthy rich. Tony Stark was from a family of millionaires. There were plenty of people around who would want a piece of that. And that kid would be completely unprepared for the cut-throat people that would be around here. And he said yes.

Then Rhodes met him.

Tony Stark was a _tiny_ little thing. There was a whole bunch of people with him. He was a lanky kid, to be sure, all skin and bones, despite the fact that he was chewing on a cheeseburger. He had a head of dark, unkempt hair. He looked like any other teenage boy except for the fact that those trainers alone probably cost more than Rhodes made in a month.

That and he had a white-haired butler carrying his bags in. Well...not all of them. Contrary to what Rhodes expected from the son of a millionaire, Tony Stark carried one suitcase in his hand and a large backpack on his back. Tony was wearing sunglasses on his face but grinned at Rhodes when he saw him.

‘Hi,’ he said cheerfully.

Howard Stark, a man of his sixties, with fading brown hair which had, rumour had it, once matched the colour of his son’s and a moustache that, in real life, kind of resembled a nest of spiders with very short legs. He pulled a slip of paper out of his back pocket and quickly read it. Of course, he could understand the boy prodigy’s father doing research on precisely who his son’s roommate would be.

Howard Stark then cocked an eyebrow at Rhodes.

Rhodes winced but he responded to Tony. ‘Hi. You must be Tony Stark.’

‘Yup,’ Tony said. ‘Who are you?’

‘James Rhodes.’

Tony pulled a face. ‘I think I’ll just call you Rhodey.’

The butler winced. ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Rhodes.’ He turned to Tony. ‘Young Sir, you cannot nickname someone you’ve just met.’

‘Sure I can,’ Tony said.

‘No, you can’t,’ the butler argued. ‘You must get to know him first.’

‘Nah!’ Tony decided. ‘I nickname him and then I get to know him. And I might change it later.’

To say Rhodes was amused would be an understatement.

_Well, I guess I better get used to “Rhodey” now._

***

Rhodey found he was right. He did have to watch Tony.

But not for the reasons he’d previously assumed. Tony was deeply familiar with the concept of people wanting his money. He knew ass-kissers and he viewed them with contempt. He knew gold-diggers and he made sport of them. In hindsight, it was naive to assume that a kid who’d been rich his whole life would be unprepared for this sort of thing.

The first thing Rhodey had to watch Tony for were his own habits. Tony was every bit as brilliant as he was touted to be. He didn’t think he was above limitations, but he liked to push the established limits. He liked to see how far he could really go. Nothing really wrong with that – it was how science progressed.

The problem was that when he was on one of these science binges, he completely lost track of everything else around him. He didn’t eat, he didn’t drink (except for coffee), he didn’t wash, and he didn’t sleep. It was easy to see why it had been insisted that the kid have a roommate. His parents wanted someone to pull him away and remind him to do all these things.

It became a routine after a while.

Then, Rhodey’s job got harder.

Other people.

Most of the students were fine to just ignore the pint-sized genius. He was there, yes. He was miles ahead of them, yes. But he was not their concern. There were a few, though, who took exception to Tony’s presence. When they realised they wouldn’t get anything out of him, they wanted him to feel unwelcome on the campus. So, they picked on him. Or rather, they tried to.

Tony was a better fighter than he looked. He may have been small, and he may have preferred to verbally eviscerate his aggressor but he knew how to spot weaknesses and he knew how to hit them. Rhodey had ended up fighting them with him a few times, because these were bullies – they were people who only knew how to talk with their fists.

And a few of them didn’t know when to quit.

Sometimes, Rhodey wasn’t sure Tony needed him, he was so good at hitting people where it hurt, but then Tony said something to him.

‘It’s nice to have someone watching my back.’

Tony may not have needed his help, but he appreciated it.

Somewhere along the line, Rhodey grew attached to this scrawny kid with more money than sense. At some point, he realised one day, this not-even-old-enough-to-drive kid had become his best friend. And, sometime in the year, James Rhodes had stopped really thinking of himself as James and started thinking of himself as _Rhodey_.

The military may have wanted him to get an in with the Starks, but they’d actually helped create the best friendship Rhodey ever had. Sure, Tony could be a real little shit sometimes (even after he grew up). But Rhodey loved every second of it.

Tony Stark was not as _tiny_ as Rhodey had first believed.


End file.
